August 12, 2015 TnH Global

Amadeus powers startups to ignite innovation in Asia Pacific

Amadeus partners with Bangkok Startup Weekend 2015 as part of Amadeus NEXT
The 54-hour frenzy of business model creation, coding and design resulted in ideas to improve the future of travel in Asia Pacific

Travellers today have more power than ever before. With a smart mobile device in nearly every hand, travellers are well-informed and demand better service throughout the entire travel lifecycle.

To find new ways to meet traveller needs in this ‘Age of Traveller Power’, global travel technology leader Amadeus, together with Tech Sauce, a Bangkok-based technology startup organisation, just wrapped up “Bangkok Startup Weekend 2015: Travel Edition, powered by Amadeus.”

The event, held from 24 to 26 July 2015, saw more than 55 participants including developers, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts, passionate about marrying technology and travel, come up with original and pioneering ways to address travellers’ pain points and improve the travel experience.

Amadeus equipped participants with industry expertise and coaching from in-house experts as well as access to the Amadeus Travel Innovation Sandbox, a set of APIs to access Amadeus content for testing and prototyping.

“Travel and technology are two of the fastest moving industries that exist today. We know that fresh, innovative and often disruptive ideas are constantly being generated from startups across the region. That is why it is so exciting to support this event and be able to listen to, learn from and work with talented individuals, and together envisage innovative ideas that could potentially revolutionise our industry,” said Simon Akeroyd, Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Business Development.

Amadeus’ participation in Bangkok Startup Weekend 2015 is just one of the initiatives from Amadeus NEXT, a programme to nurture, mentor and partner with travel startups in Asia Pacific. The programme leverages Amadeus’ technology, expertise, reach and funding to evolve new and original ideas in travel.

Amadeus NEXT also drives an internal culture of new idea development and lean thinking through internal hackathons and a startup academy.

Globally, Amadeus invests more than 15% of its revenue each year towards R&D and innovation, and also has a dedicated Amadeus Venture Fund which offers early stage minority investments in startups.